Council to consider $8 million civic square and parkade

Council will be asked June 30 to endorse a new multimillion-dollar proposal that will turn the area around a new city hall into an expansive and pedestrian-oriented civic square.

Funding has already been approved for a new city hall, but an administrative report is recommending the scrapping of the original proposal to maintain adjacent surface parking and, instead, incorporate that freed-up space into a “pedestrian-friendly campus” with a southward extension of the existing civic esplanade north of the current city hall.

Central to the plan is a recommendation for a $7.2-million parkade on McDougall Avenue across from Windsor Arena. An additional $800,000 is being sought to close off the road that currently separates the existing city hall with the adjacent 400 City Hall Square building, as well as add pedestrian pathways and open spaces connecting the various elements of a new “government campus.”

The overall concept is based on a civic square urban design study and master plan adopted by city council in 1993 with its vision for development, over time, of a “unified government precinct.” The plan would include a civic plaza and park “as the forecourt to city hall,” a tree-lined pedestrian esplanade and formal garden and water feature.

Administration advises that the money is available after the federal government recently bailed out of a tentative deal with the municipality to share leased space in an expanded new city hall.

The original proposal was for a new city hall to be built in the area currently used as a 65-space parking lot to its immediate south, with the existing city hall to be torn down and converted into surface parking.

Under the new recommendation, the current city hall would be torn down and its footprint incorporated into public space. The proposed two-storey parking structure would accommodate about 300 vehicle spaces, although chief administrative officer Helga Reidel said at least two outside parties have already expressed interest in seeing additional spaces being provided for their use.

The 27-page report to council, which includes six pages of concept drawings, estimates the cost of a five-storey parkade at up to $19.3 million. Administration is requesting council support for development of a business case for an expanded parking facility.

Reidel told The Star she was not at liberty to divulge details of the three outside parties but that one involves an existing business while another is part of “a new venture in the downtown.”

The report is partly in response to a council request to look at the potential of providing underground parking at the new city hall. Municipal planning and engineering staff looked at three options:

— Estimated cost of single-level underground parking for 80 vehicles: $2.9 million (or $36,000 cost per space); two levels (160 spaces) would cost about $6.5 million (or $40,000 per space).

Staff is recommending the parking structure. With anticipated future demand for parking, including University of Windsor downtown expansion nearby and a proposed Catholic high school on the site of the current Windsor Arena), city planners warn of increasing demand for parking, with “a real risk of having more surface lots emerge in the downtown” if there are no alternatives.

The city’s nearby Goyeau Street parking garage, with 561 spaces, is currently at capacity, with an 18-month waiting list of vehicle owners (180) seeking spaces reserved for monthly users.

Over the past two years, city council had earmarked $47 million for a new city hall, but $12 million of that is no longer needed after Ottawa said no in January to what the municipality thought was a tentative agreement requiring two extra storeys to be leased out to the feds.

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